Principal sues city, police for $10 million over jailing

Seized over gun report, she says race was factor

September 24, 2003|By Manya A. Brachear, Tribune staff reporter.

A year after she was handcuffed in front of students and led to jail, the principal of a South Side middle school is asking for a $10 million apology from police who said she lied about a gun on campus to hasten the officers' response.

Lawyers for Cheryl Marshall-Washington, principal of Dyett Academic Center in the Washington Park neighborhood, told reporters Tuesday that if Marshall-Washington had not been black and the lieutenant who ordered the arrest had not been white, the episode would not have unfolded the way it did.

"This is the first time in the history of the Chicago public school system ... that a principal has been arrested in the presence of her students arising out of her performance of her duties," said R. Eugene Pincham, Marshall-Washington's attorney and a former Illinois Appellate Court justice.

"We are of the opinion that it was racist and racially motivated," he added. "It is hideous and despicable conduct."

Police spokesman David Bayless said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it.

On Sept. 23, 2002, a fight broke out among six female students and reportedly one of them had a gun. Marshall-Washington, principal of the school since 1999, instructed an employee to call police.

When a SWAT team arrived and found no gun, Marshall-Washington was accused of filing a false report and arrested on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct.

She was handcuffed, put behind bars and released on bail about 10 hours later, Pincham said.

A spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office said Cook County Circuit Court Judge Mark Ballard convicted Washington but set aside that conviction after learning that a school district inspector had been told by a Chicago police officer that there was a gun at the scene.

During the retrial, the case was dismissed because the prosecution's key witness was on furlough.

In addition to pressing criminal charges, the city also sued Marshall-Washington to recover the costs of dispatching a SWAT team, said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's Law Department.

The city is now considering whether to proceed with its suit since the criminal charges have been dismissed, Hoyle said.

Marshall-Washington's lawsuit asks for $2.5 million for each of the four complaints listed in the lawsuit--illegal and false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.